Perth FM News - 21 October 09

H1N1 vaccination begins in Tayside

The Swine Flu vaccination has now been kicked off in Tayside. NHS Tayside will initially be targeting areas in its hospitals where patients may be more likely to be admitted with flu, such as the infectious diseases unit, children's wards and intensive care units. People who are in clinical at-risk groups will receive a letter from their own GP inviting them to attend for vaccination over the coming weeks

MP calls for more weather stations to be used in Payments scheme

Labour MP for Ochil and South Perthshire Gordon Banks yesterday continued his campaign to have more weather stations used to calculate payments under the Cold Weather Payments scheme. The programme makes automatic payments to those who qualify, such as pensioners or the severely disabled, when the average temperature at a station falls to zero degrees. Mr Banks believes areas such as Crieff and Luncarty could be missing out as their temperature is gauged by a station at Leuchars. There are 190 stations in the UK measuring temperature on a daily basis and only 76 used for calculating this award.

'Lively debate' expected on Beault to Denny Line

An engineering organisation has said it expects a "lively debate" during discussions on the proposed upgrade of the Beauly to Denny power line. The seminar is designed to give people the opportunity to hear from the companies concerned and to ask questions. A decision approving or rejecting the upgrade has still to be made by Scottish ministers following an 11-month-long public inquiry that heard the cases for and against the proposal. Costs involved have been estimated at 400 million pounds.